SPACE TOURISM—When will Florida get its “Ticket to Ride”?

July 31, 2008-- Sorry, couldn’t help the Beatles reference. Sir Richard Branson unveiled the mother ship of what’s supposed to be his Virgin Galactic commercial space tourism business this week. Once tested out on the West Coast, it’s supposed to carry customers paying top dollar for five minutes of weightlessness. Opinions on mixed on when, or if, Virgin will fly out of Florida.

Back in February, I was offered the opportunity to do a radio feature from inside “G Force One”. That’s the official name of the modified Boeing 727 which takes up passengers for the “Zero-G” corporation. The plane goes up and its customers get several spurts of weightlessness. If you’d like to hear the NPR feature I did following my microgravity flight, here’s the link…

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87829750

Those rides go for $3,000 to $4,000 each (before you ask, I was a media guest of the company). Still, would you pay $200,000 for less floating time, but at the rim of space? That’s what Sir Richard Branson is betting on with “White Knight 2”. It’s the carrier plane for the yet-to-be-unveiled “Spaceship 2”. Once tested, passengers will pay close to $200,000 for a two and a half hour long ride, culminating in five minutes of weightlessness.

Whether it’s yes or no, the Space Coast hopes Virgin comes here. That may not occur quickly. Officials with “Space Florida” and the Spacecoast EDC point to media reports that say that after flying out of California, Las Vegas, or New Mexico, Branson will likely go to a foreign destination next. Speculation falls either to Australia, Sweden, or Dubai. No one is giving up hope for “White Knight 2” to fly from the Kennedy Space Center’s landing strip. But, it may be a while.

On another subject, many thanks to the League of Women Voters and the Orange County Public School Foundation for inviting me to moderate a televised forum featuring candidates for the School Board. It airs on Orange TV starting this Friday.

On the book front, if you’re making plans to visit St. Augustine on September 13th. That’s my next stop with “Final Countdown”. I’ve been invited to speak at the Florida Heritage Book Festival. Hope to see you there.

More to come